I literally just had a friend tell me he joined Threads and how neat it was, etc etc and when I explained why I wouldn't be joining him, he basically just gave me the old "Well I already know they have all my information so it doesn't matter"

...like wtf? So you just...give up having any privacy whatsoever? I just couldn't respond to him after that, I don't really know how to respond to that. There's a disease spreading in the world unfortunately and it isn't just COVID. It's one called Apathy and too many people are coming down with it.

Ok, but only if I get to make the next post that complains about people complaining about people who complain about Reddit. Or...something.

*Donaghy, and at least Jack had Liz to act as a moral compass/course correction. David is just another asshat CEO with no moral or ethical scruples.

I used to be a frequent poster/commenter on OCR and the lesser known parody site OverLooked Remix way back in the day. It always warms my heart to see that site still going strong and seeing remixes from it used during Speedrun marathons on twitch

Liquidator Spez. RCA (Reddit Commerce Authority)

Government: "Hey, do you think we should crack down on these corporations pouring 50-100 tonnes of pollution into the ecosystem/atmosphere by increasing their carbon taxes, making it illegal to buy/sell said tax credits to/from other corporations, and creating/enforcing stricter environmental regulations on those companies?"

Government employee stuffing a wadded envelope into their pocket: "Erm, um, on second thought, wouldn't it mean a lot more if the average consumer stopped using plastic forks and put their cans in the recycle bins? That's gotta be at least 1.5...tonnes right there."

Companies are going out of their way to ignore the fact that "the easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." - Gabe Newell

I consider adblocking to be in the same boat. Piracy/Adblocking only exists because it's not a pricing issue. It's a service issue. By making the free version even more intrusive ON PURPOSE, they're not pushing as many people to buy a subscription as they are pushing people to install adblockers. If YouTube only ever showed a quick 10-15 sec ad at the very beginning of a video, I'd be less inclined to go out of my way to find and install an adblocker (and maybe even eventually just buy a subscription) than if they force feed me back to back, 30-second, unskippable ads.

It's the same with those stupid fucking commercials that run ALL the time and try and be as annoying as possible. If I find your ad to be annoying and frequent and shoved down my throat all the time, I will vehemently and actively go out of my way to AVOID that product, not be more inclined to buy it.

Sponsorblock is the reason I'm confident that no matter what they try people can and will find ways to overcome it.

"What are companies thinking"

It turns out I actually have the ability to convert thoughts to text for any company CEO or Board Member. So allow me to post an excerpt of what I've found:

"moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneyiwishepsteinwerestillheremoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney"

I'm ngl, I'm kind of morbidly curious what, if any, remains are there when a sub at this depth implodes. Will there even be any bodies that are retrievable?

If it's any consolation, I went through something similar. There's a subreddit community that I was a part of for a long time that I loved deeply, it was a very warm and inviting place. When the sub went on blackout and took a poll to extend indefinitely, I made a passionate plea to the sub to really consider what's at stake, even though so many of them felt like it was pointless. I wasn't rude, I wasn't callous or pessimistic, I just wanted people to know that whether something seems hopeless or not isn't the point at all, but rather taking a stand for something you believe in should be the point.

I was promptly met with a barrage of downvotes and someone replying to me spewing vitriol and telling me to 'touch grass', with another person just shrugging and saying they just want things to go back to the way they were (by ending the blackout). It's weird but I was honestly pretty hurt by that response. This community that I came to know and love turned on me the moment I suggested we take a stand.

Apathy is, unfortunately, a real problem in our world today. Too many people aren't willing to do even the bare minimum to protest or protect their rights. They would sooner just fall back into what is comfortable (or worse, they just give up before even trying because they have already lost hope) and have decisions and actions be made for them rather than risk losing that "certainty."

I remember reading a comment that said they half expected this to be a 'Door in the Face' technique (or a different one with a different name, can't recall) wherein Reddit was being a clever sales person by starting high and then going low, because the true goal was to just introduce a pricing plan to begin with. If they had just started with a pricing plan, there'd be pushback and they might have to rescind it, but if they started with something ridiculous and then walked it back/lowered it to something reasonable (their goal the entire time), they could save face and say "hey Reddit we heard you loud and clear and you're right!" and Reddit could go "We did it Reddit!" - I thought that seemed very plausible at the time.

Then I thought maybe it was just Hanlon's Razor. They were just being stupid. Turns out it was a little of both malice and stupidity.